But this brings up another question: Do you want to store your tobacco with air in it to slowly ferment/age or do you want it to age in an oxygen deprived (vacuum) environment? I do not know which is best but I store my tobacco in mason jars that have not been vacuum sealed. Interesting though that a lot of the European tobacco tins are vacuumed tins while most of the American ones are not. I guess here's the next big experiment for someone (not me) to do. Pack some mason jars with tobacco. Vacuum some and leave the others with some air in them.... report back here in 10 years
I've done this. I bought a ton of dunhill tins in 2005 not realizing that they'd changed their contract and the blends were now being made in (gasp) Denmark. After finding that my beloved 965 and Nightcap weren't the same, I put the contents of the open tins in jars (not vacuum sealed) and left the closed tins with them. Last year I finally finished those two original tins and, wondering about this myself, after smoking the last bowl of each I immediately opened another vacuum sealed tin and fired it up. They were a bit different, though only on a very subtle level. The latakia was a little flatter on the jared versions. Both seemed slightly sweeter, and the orientals were less sharp. I cant say that I preferred one over the other. The dunhill example has the largest gap between purchase and opening, but i routinely perform this experiment with tobaccos that are 3-4 years old. Differences are minimal.
BTW, I'm also using quart jars to store whole leaf tobacco in medium case. While this method of storage doesn't allow you to really pack in the leaf, it works and allows for the tobacco to age while still providing me the versatility of using it in any way I see fit. The stuff I put down in 2011/12 smells awesome.